


better with you

by puppyfacedbrokenboys



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [35]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, High School Reunion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 06:19:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8567347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puppyfacedbrokenboys/pseuds/puppyfacedbrokenboys
Summary: Ethan and Danny meet at their ten year high school reunion. Things do not go according to Ethan's plans - which may or may not be a bad thing.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkAliceLilith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAliceLilith/gifts).



> Tumblr prompt by dark-alice-lilith:
> 
> Dethan - meeting at a high school reunion au

He shouldn't be there. He didn't have the right to be there. He'd left; he didn't finish.

Ethan fiddled with the lapels of his jacket as he peeked around the pillar in the large room he hid behind. He glimpsed Scott, his arm being held captive by Kira. His eyes drifted to the left to see Stiles and Malia not too far away. The sight of them drilled that notion that he didn't belong there — he didn't deserve to be — hard in his chest.

(And it was a testament to the still lax security in this town that he found himself inside, undetected.)

But he'd be gone soon enough.

He just needed one thing before he'd leave and never come back.

His eyes roamed the room, fingers dangerously clutching a glass as he tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible. He'd lost track of how long he'd been there, watching and waiting. Ten, twenty minutes? An hour? Scott had talked to ten different people since he'd got there; Ethan always, always found his eyes drifting to the Alpha in the hopes he'd show up and talk to him, but to no avail.

Ethan downed the last of the third champagne he'd stolen off of an oblivious waitstaff's tray. He gave up.

(He could have sworn he heard Aiden's manic laughter echo in his ear.)

With one last glance at Scott — smiling, gracious and oblivious Scott, lost in his element — talking to his eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth (Ethan had lost count) visitor (some guy Ethan had no recollection of), Ethan turned his back on the room and started the incognito maze of slipping out, unnoticed.

He wasn't there.

Ethan was stupid to hope; stupid to come.

Once Ethan was back in the warm, balmy night air he hunched in his jacket and walked as briskly through the small sea of people still arriving. He was careful to hide his face, lest one of them had a good memory and noticed him. He wasn't sure what impression he'd left on the town; therefore, in the case he'd left a bad one that still lingered, he figured being invisible was the best bet. He'd parked closer to the reserve than the school and he had a mighty walk ahead of him.

"You promise we won't be here long?"

The voice caused Ethan to hesitate. He knew that voice. It'd been a little over ten years since he'd heard that voice. A slow fire flickered it's way down his spine and paralyzed him momentarily; all the while his head was screaming at him to keep going, idiot.

"Promise. Just dropping by to see Scott and bask in the glory of being one of the most successful in the room." The unmistakable, borderline holier-than-thou response could only belong to one person. Good, Danny was still friends with Lydia Martin.

"Plus," she continued, "if we stay too long we may die. And I don't know about you, but I have too much to lose."

Ethan fought a smile at her feeble joke at the same time he was starting to panic. They were in front of him, almost dead on. He could turn back, try to hide. But even with enhanced speed, Ethan knew that'd look suspicious. So he took a deep breath and decided to continue forward, if only at more of a rush.

He'd make it, if only the group of burly dudes on their way in hadn't materialized in front of him. It caused him to change course quickly, but not enough to miss clipping the closest guy's shoulder, which sent him staggering to his left and right into—

"Hey, watch where you—” Danny began, his hand gripping Ethan's bicep in an effort to stop him from ramming into him. The motion caused Ethan to look up and Danny gasped. "No."

Ethan's instincts kicked in and he rounded away from Danny, effectively breaking Danny's grip on his jacket, and then he was running, running, running.

Not fast enough for his enhanced hearing not to make out the, "Was that—? Ethan!” coming from Lydia and a few seconds later the faintly familiar sound of Danny's footsteps slapping the pavement in a rush behind him.

Danny was running after him. Danny, former cross country runner and lacrosse goalie, was running after him.

Ethan, his wolf powers be damned, was screwed if he couldn't lose him. But Ethan had not been there in years; the terrain was unfamiliar to him. He knew he needed to keep straight to get to the woods. Now he was regretting parking so damn far away.

"Dammit, Ethan," Danny yelled behind him. He was getting closer. Ethan had forgotten how fast he was. "I just want to—"

Ethan was stupid. He chanced a glance back at Danny and managed to, of all things, trip over a curb. A werewolf, in particular, tripped over a curb. And the absurdity of it all caused a peel of manic laughter burble out of his chest, mingling with the groans of hitting the ground.

He was pathetic.

When he had fully landed and stopped rolling from the momentum, he rolled to his back and a half a minute later, had the one person he'd been looking for all night standing over him.

"Go on, tell me how pathetic I am. I can take it," Ethan grumbled as he pushed himself up. His hands were smeared with already dried blood from the now-healed scrapes.

When he squinted up at Danny, wreathed in gold from the harsh streetlight behind him, Ethan's breath caught in his chest. Danny was shaking his head, obviously holding back his own laughter. He dropped down to the ground, sitting cross legged in front of Ethan.

"Not pathetic. Over dramatic, maybe." The soft smile he gave produced one dimple. It was torture.

They sat in silence for a what felt like an eternity, but in reality only last a few moments consisting of Ethan looking at Danny and Danny staring back. Danny was trying to read him whereas Ethan was suspended in a wondrous state. The silence stretched on too long and Ethan's nerves began their crawl under his skin.

He decided he'd been there way too long and when Danny made no indication he would break the silence, Ethan sighed and started to get up. A hand gripped his arm, anchoring him to the ground.

"Don't," Danny commanded softly. He licked his lips, fingers tightening in emphasis. "Don't leave, not again," he added and Ethan's heart broke at the crack in his voice.

"You need to get back to—”

"Screw the reunion. Screw them," Danny stressed, losing his calm. "I actually graduated early, unlike Lydia. My diploma was mailed to me. I didn't walk with them." Danny gave a small, dry laugh. His hand loosened it's grip on Ethan, in favor of sliding down his arm to settle on Ethan's wrist. "I was already gone. To Hawaii. College, you know. All before they all took their SATs. I didn't stay..."

The silent 'there was no reason to' hung between them heavily. Ethan swallowed.

"I... I know I was the one to tell you I couldn't do it. But I... couldn't let you break it off. Not again. Not after my ex..." Danny's eyes locked onto his and Ethan couldn't move, couldn't breathe. "After what happened... To you, I knew you needed to go. It was written all over you, even though you tried to hide it. And I... Had to try and hurt you instead of it being me." Danny sighed, then, squeezing Ethan's palm and it was only until Danny sniffed that Ethan noticed the tears forming in his eyes.

Ethan's heart seized in his chest.

"I'm sorry. That I did that. It's haunted me since," Danny continued at a whisper.

Ethan was at a loss for words. He looked at Danny's hand wrapped around his and was bombarded with flashes of their time together. Danny had broke things off: true. But he was also right, Ethan would have broken things off that night if Danny hadn't beaten him to the punch. The reality of that was what had haunted Ethan for all these years, underneath it all.

Ethan sighed. The silence was beginning to gnaw at him. "Thank you, for what you did," Ethan began at a mere whisper. He couldn't look up at Danny, ashamed he was saying such a thing. But it needed to be said. Ethan, as much as he hated to admit it, had needed to let go that night. If he hadn't, his grief would have had destroyed them; the possibility of which he could not have bared. "You're right. Either I would have broke your heart or I would've been too much of a coward to do anything and my grief..." He trailed off, choked up.

Danny gave his hand a squeeze. "There are worse things." His tone was so soft, Ethan felt the urge to flinch away. He didn't deserve it. "Are you... Better, now?" Danny had difficulty phrasing it. He understood that there was an Ethan before and an Ethan after Aiden's death. And he cared about his well-being after it all.

Ethan's face was soon home to a trickling stream. He couldn't speak and he found himself losing his composuring, shaking his head instead of speaking. Soon he was wrapped in Danny's arms, the familiar, unforgettable scent of Danny and Armani wrapping him in a cocoon of comfort.

The overwhelmingly abundance of it broke Ethan resolve, and soon he was a bubbling mess of apologies and tears in Danny's arms with Danny holding him through all of it.

"No," Ethan managed to gasp, muffled by Danny's neck. "Not better. Not without you." He sniffed and held on tight.

"Ya know," Danny began softly, his lips against Ethan's temple, "in these ten years, I've realized something."

"What?" Ethan couldn't help himself but ask, calming to the point of small hiccups.

"I can handle it," he answered with a small laugh. He leaned away to catch Ethan's eyes. "The whole dating a werewolf thing. It was a lame excuse to go easy on you. And you know what else if realized?"

He grinned at Ethan in a way that cause Ethan to mirror him. His thumb came up to wipe away the tears on his left cheek.

"I'm also better with you." He gripped the back of Ethan's neck and pulled the wolf to him. The kiss, while wet and salty, made the couple melt into each other as the ten years between them faded away.


End file.
